Enhancement of the magnetic modulation of surface plasmon polaritons in Au/Co/AuFilms

The deposition of a dielectric overlayer on top of Au/Co/Au multilayer films can significantly enhance the magnetic field induced modulation of the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) wave vector. This enhancement is analyzed as a function of the thickness of the dielectric overlayer and the associated SPP electromagnetic field confinement and redistribution. The decrease in SPP propagation distance is taken into account by analyzing an adequate figure of merit.We acknowledge funding from the EU (Grant No. NMP3-SL-2008-214107 Nanomagma), the Spanish MICINN (“MAGPLAS” Grant No. MAT2008-06765-C02-01/NAN,“FUNCOAT” CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010 Grant Nos.CSD2008-00023, and MAT2005-05524-C02-01), the Comunidad de Madrid (“NANOBIOMAGNET” Grant No. S2009/MAT-1726 and “MICROSERES-CM” Grant No. S2009/ TIC-1476), CSIC (Grant No. 200850I187), and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant No. TE770/1).Peer reviewe